Do we really need replay review?

Packers will make good use of compensatory picks

March 24, 2015

by

Bob from Perth, Australia

Vic, if you could swap jobs with anyone at the Packers, who would it be?

Ted Thompson, right? Wouldn’t every Packers fan want to be Thompson? You’d be in complete control of the football team. You could sign any free agent you want; draft for need. The fact Thompson doesn’t act in that manner says everything about his beliefs and his discipline to do what is best for the franchise, not what’s best for Thompson’s popularity with the fans. Thompson knows what it takes to build a winning and lasting roster. Stay young and stay good. That’s how you do it and that’s what Thompson has done. He’s built a good, young roster with a dedication to acquiring talent in the draft, because that’s where you find young talent.

Travis from Bell Center, WI

Ted Thompson loves to horde draft picks, but do you ever feel like we have too many? Toward the end of preseason, we hardly ever add players from other teams, however, anyone who doesn’t fit our 53-man roster is almost immediately sniped by other teams. If we have nine picks and assume only five rookies will make the roster, why not trade up and get 5-6 players of higher quality?

The Packers haven’t lost an excess of players they’ve drafted. They’ve done a good job of using the practice squad and injured reserve to retain talent they’ve earmarked for development.

Brett from Green Bay, WI

Vic, what do you think is the Packers’ No. 1 need in the draft?

I would say it’s for an impact inside linebacker.

Nathan from Denver, CO

The Packers are slated to have three draft picks in an eight-pick span at the end of the sixth round. What does a GM do with three picks so close together?

Trading compensatory picks isn’t permitted, so we know at least two of those three picks will be used by the Packers to select players. The Packers may trade their original sixth-round pick. Ted Thompson has routinely used late-round picks to jockey into position to select a player he’s targeted and at the place where he fits in the order.

Koigi from Lynchburg, VA

Vic, the formula is a secret but, in comparison to what we got last year, did you expect better than two sixth-rounders, as I did?

I can’t remember what I wrote a few weeks ago when asked what I expected the Packers to receive, but I think it was two low-round choices. The Packers do good work in the late rounds. They’ll make good use of the picks.

Pete from Chapel Hill, NC

Vic, sobering data on concussion research from Stanford. They used sensors in their players’ upper mouth guards to record forces applied to the head in football impacts. For reference, a fighter pilot doing high-speed maneuvers experiences 4-6 g’s. The average of 500 football impacts was 30 g’s. One player was knocked out for two minutes after an impact of 106 g’s!

Gee!

Richard from Santa Ana, CA

Do you think it’s a make-or-break year for Nick Perry? I expect him to burst onto the scene and unleash his talents after a few injury-prone years. Time for him to take another step forward and play himself into a nice, long-term contract.

He needs to find a position he can call his own. I think I wrote the same thing at this time a year ago.

Paula from Crystal, MN

I enjoy your column very much. If the rules committee allowed you to change one rule about football, what would you change?

I’d get rid of replay review. Its impact on the game has been devastating. It’s re-writing the rulebook. I genuinely don’t know what a catch is. Is that good for the game? OK, Rob Lytle didn’t score. The wrong team went to the Super Bowl. Deal with it! We did.

Andy from Fort Collins, CO

Two years ago, Aqib Talib’s contract with the Pats was up. Rather than break the bank to keep him, they let Denver sign him and replaced him for a year with Revis, who had been cut, so he didn’t factor into their compensatory selections. Now Revis is gone, but the Pats have a third-rounder for letting Talib walk and a Super Bowl ring Revis helped them earn. If that isn’t the right way to make free agency work for you, I don’t know what is.

The Patriots are astute managers of the game and the business of professional football.

Brad from Parker, CO

Draft-day trades have become common in recent years. Do personnel departments typically do this on the fly when they’re on the clock, depending on how their board looks at the time, or do they begin negotiating with possible trade partners long in advance of the draft?

You have to be careful about the information you provide prior to the draft. It can and will be used against you.

Jesse from Copperas Cove, TX

How much significance plays into the fact the Packers have played at a high level for so long? Being playoff contenders for a better part of two decades breeds diehard fans, right? Just win, baby.

Teams that win get TV time, and TV time builds fan bases. It’s, yet, another example of the dirty little secret, that the goal is to make it into the playoffs every year.

Paul from De Pere, WI

Come on, Vic, really? Is the Wes Welker madness legit, or are you cherry picking questions?

Of course I’m cherry picking questions; there are 3,236 questions in my inbox as I pen these words. Be that as it may, I attempt to use questions that are indicative of the tone in my inbox.

Mike from Eden Prairie, MN

Vic, could someone please, please establish a rule forbidding commentators’ meaningless jargon, which detracts from their effectiveness and our enjoyment of the game? I have had my fill of running downhill, foot in the ground, flying around, and even the sacred red zone. Al Michaels is the gold standard and he seldom uses these terms.

I agree. We need less player talk and better use of the English language. Jon Gruden uses football terminology, but he has a knack for making it sound sophisticated. Cris Collinsworth does a good job in that way, too, but when you get into the depths of the TV guys, it starts to become terribly cover twoish.

Gregory from Munster, IN

Vic, do you think the Packers would even think of signing Greg Jennings after what he said about the team brainwashing, and then dissing No. 12?

If the Packers thought Jennings could help them, they’d sign him and never give a thought to anything he said.

Aton from Madison, WI

L.T. over J.J. Watt? What the heck were you thinking? J.J. didn’t have a winning Giants team. J.J. does it in more ways with less than Taylor did.

Lawrence Taylor is the greatest defensive player in the history of football.